Impressionist Impressions

The phone rang at 8:10 a.m.
"Are you up for an adventure?"

An hour later, Cyndi and I were motoring to the Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme, Connecticut. It was their last weekend of The Artist's Garden and exhibit of American impressionist paintings and gardens. 

This image is from the Florence Griswold web site.

I have a whole bunch of pictures, but my camera is refusing to connect to the computer. It says it is, but it's not. I'll check it out at work during lunch.

After touring the museum and before going to the boarding house that Ms. Griswold ran, we had a lovely time sitting in Adirondack chairs just watching the river. The weather on Saturday was fantastic and much cooler than today.

Below is an enlargement of the center of the picture above. I wanted you to see the family of swans.

Not bad for a camera phone, huh? Now, if my phone would only make phone calls, I'd be happy. 

[Here are some of the Griswold boarding house pics -- more after work. I had to eat lunch, ya know!]

 The dining room. The artists painted the panels on the doors and when they ran out of doors, they painted panels in the dining room.

 Above is Ms. Griswold's bedroom. The ship in the picture over the fireplace is the one her father captained.

Above is the door to Ms. G's bedroom -- painted by the only female artist in the bunch!

More dining room art above.

After the Griswold boarding house, it was time for a late lunch and we had a seafood feast at Abbots.

 We ate outside at a picnic table.

What could be better? Eating yummy seafood dreaming about being on one of those sailboats was just lovely. Thanks, Cyndi! (By the way, you forgot to get your money from me for lunch!)

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Did I tell you I went to the Amherst Block Party last Thursday? It was fun to stroll down a closed-to-cars street. There were lots of circus performers from the circus school in Easthampton. 

 This woman did a long routine high above the street with a purple scarf.


As we left work to go to the block party, there was a driveway full of electric cars presented by the Pioneer Valley Electric Auto Club. I posed with the Tesla, which is Lisa's favorite. Its sticker price is around $142,000.

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And ...

Last weekend I took a Senior Center bus trip to the NY Botanical Gardens in the Bronx. It was a wonderful trip, but beastly hot. Consequently, what pictures I got are mostly from the open air tram. Their impressionist exhibit of New York painters was very small and no photos were allowed. (The tram pictures are in my camera which won't connect to the pc ...) I was surprised to see a couple of John Singer Sargent paintings -- he's one of my favorites. But his paintings didn't impress me -- they were of a fountain on the grounds.

We had a very lovely luncheon in the restaurant on the grounds. Of course, I'm a sucker for cloth napkins! They had huge photos of gardens and a stream on the wall so you felt as if you were outdoors, but it was mercifully air conditioned.


On the way home, the bus stopped at a diner in CT that also had great food and the biggest pastries I've even seen in my life. I brought Lisa an apple turnover (triangular shaped) and the long side must have been over 8 inches! The form that we use to give the fine money to the Town is called a "turnover" and I always joke, asking Lisa if she wants and apple or cherry turnover. That Monday, she got apple!

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Today, Sunday, was my day to "get things done." It was nothing spectacular -- cooking, wash, etc. And the weather has gone from pleasantly cool and dry to hotter and very very humid. I could hardly breathe when I went to the store.

I did manage to make a tasty vegetarian soup with pre-made veggie broth, zucchini, onions, mushrooms and some seasonings.The mini crustless quiche are for breakfast and I haven't tried the veggie (no cheese) eggplant casserole yet. Lisa is bringing me more eggplant from her garden so I figured I should make a casserole she can eat -- no cheese for her!

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I was happy that Netflix sent me an email telling me that there is more Luther to watch. I had, however, forgotten how brutal the murders are. 

Previously, I have been watching 30 in February which is a Swedish series. That's when I found out that I can't knit and read subtitles at the same time. It's about the adventures of some Swedes in Thailand. As with most things Swedish, it has some dark sides to the drama, but I'm enjoying it. You have to get to about the third episode for it to lighten up consistently.